The Sixteen Holy Names of the Lord

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The Sixteen Holy Names of the Lord

 

Q & A with Swami B. V. Tripurari

 

"The maha-mantra contains sixteen holy names of the Lord and is

composed of thirty-two syllables. If you continually chant this

maha-mantra, the seed of love of God will sprout in your heart. Then

you will understand the goal of life and the process for achieving it."

(Caitanya Bhagavata 1.14.145-147)

 

Q. Why do we refer to congregational chanting of the Hare Krsna

maha-mantra as Harinama rather than Krsnanama?

 

A. Hari is a name of God that means "he who takes away." This name is

used with the understanding that ultimately God takes everything away

from us except our relationship with him. However, in the nitya lila of

Vrndavana, the residents refer to Krsna as Hari because he has stolen

their hearts. We want Krsna to steal our hearts as well, thus we refer

to the chanting of his name as Harinama. If you think like this and do

Harinama, pure love of God (prema) will come quickly. It's that simple.

Jaya Jaya Harinama cid-anandamrta dhama!

 

Q. In the scripture it says that if one chants the name of Krsna then

prema will come quickly, but this is not my experience. Can you explain

this?

 

A. Sometimes scripture makes statements like this because to

realized souls the material conditioning of others appears to be

insignificant and temporary in relation to that which practitioners are

now connected with--the grace of the holy name of Krsna. From the

realized soul's perspective, it appears that prema will come quickly,

if one's heart is truly stolen by Hari.

 

I encourage devotees to actually think of how Krsna charms the

inhabitants of Vrndavana in the hope that this ideal will inspire them

to attend to the serious work at hand--cleansing the heart. Cleansing

the heart through spiritual practice (bhajana kriya) does take time,

but it is important to know why it is worth doing. Furthermore, a

little experience goes a long way. However, a little experience is just

that, and to get more taste for hearing (sravanam) and chanting

(kirtanam) there is a lot in the way of heart cleaning to be done.

Through chanting, one's negative impulses are overcome (anartha

nivrtti) and one becomes fixed in devotion (nistha). Continuing on in

devotion, one attains a genuine taste for chanting (ruci) and becomes

fully attached to Krsna (asakti). Then love for Krsna begins to dawn in

one's heart (bhava), which is followed by prema--pure love for Krsna.

Only after one passes through all these stages of devotion will prema

come--so get serious about chanting and devotional practice. Then you

can be sure that Krsna will show his full mercy in time and prema will

come.

 

Q. I was told that if one chants the Hare Krsna maha-mantra on beads

out loud, the mantra loses its spiritual potency. Will you comment on

this?

 

A. Srila Rupa Goswami has written in his Caitanyastaka of Stava-mala

that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted the Hare Krsna mantra in a loud

voice--hare krsnety ucchaih--while counting the names that he chanted

on a string with knots tied on it. So there should be no objection to

loud chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra on beads, and certainly the

mantra does not lose any spiritual potency from this.

 

Q. The scriptures say that there are nine processes of devotional

service--hearing, chanting, remembering, etc. In my understanding the

most effective type of devotional service in this age is to chant the

holy names of God. What then is the importance of the other eight

processes of devotional service?

 

A. In Kali-yuga the other eight expressions of bhakti are subordinate

to nama-kirtana and should thus be performed in conjunction with

chanting Krsna nama. If they are performed in this way, they will have

more power. If not, they will still be beneficial even in this age.

 

Q. Why is the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, which is central to our practice,

not specifically mentioned in the main texts of Gaudiya Vaisnavism,

specifically Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and

Caitanya-caritamrta?"

 

A. Both the Gita and the Bhagavatam extol the virtues of Krsna kirtana.

In Bhagavad-gita Sri Krsna describes great souls as devotees who are

constantly engaged in Krsna kirtana, satatam kirtayanto mam. The

Bhagavatam begins and ends with emphasis on Krsna kirtana. Indeed,

Krsna kirtana is stressed throughout the book, kirtanad eva krsnasya

mukta sanga param vrajet. However, it is true that the Hare Krsna

mantra is not mentioned in these scriptures. One reason for this is

that the scope of these scriptures is broader than other texts that

minister directly and exclusively to Gaudiya Vaisnavas. While the Gita

and the Bhagavatam emphasize kirtana, specific information about

kirtana for the followers of Mahaprabhu will be found in

Gaudiya-specific texts. Along with Caitanya-caritamrta, the Caitanya

Bhagavata of Vrndavana dasa Thakura is a core Gaudiya Vaisnava text.

There we hear Mahaprabhu speak through the pen of Vrndavana dasa

Thakura about what names he personally recommends chanting in kirtana.

Therein, while explaining the import of the famous harer nama harer

nama sloka, Mahaprabhu cites the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and says, ei

sloka nama bali' laya maha-mantra sola-nama batrisa-aksara ei

tantrasadhite sadhite yabe premankura habe sadhya-sadhana-tattva janiba

se tabe: "This verse is called the maha-mantra. It contains sixteen

holy names of the Lord and is composed of thirty-two syllables. If you

continually chant this maha-mantra, the seed of love of God will sprout

in your heart. Then you will understand the goal of life and the

process for achieving it." (CB 1.14.145-147)

 

Later, Vrndavana dasa writes, jaya jaya `hare-krsnera'-mantrera prakasa

jaya jaya nija-bhakti-grahana-vilasa: "All glories to the one who

inaugurated the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. All glories to

the one who enjoyed the pastime of accepting his own devotion." (CB

2.6.117)

 

Later still in the same book, he writes, apane sabare prabhu kare

upadese krsna-nama maha-mantra sunaha harise hare krsna hare krsna

krsna krsna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare prabhu

bale kahilana ei maha-mantra iha japa' giya sabe kariya nirbandha: "The

Lord personally instructed everyone, 'Hear the Hare Krsna maha-mantra

and be happy, "hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare hare rama

hare rama rama rama hare hare." This is the maha-mantra. All of you go

and chant this mantra according to the prescribed number.' " (CB

2.23.75-77)

 

Q. Is the subtle body consisting of the mind, intelligence, and false

ego gradually transformed to a spiritual mind, intelligence, and real

ego to accompany the soul to the spiritual realm or is the subtle body

simply dissolved? Does the spiritual body, which is dormant, consist of

its own mind, intelligence, and ego?

 

A. Srila Rupa Goswami explains

that one's material mind becomes spiritualized in bhava-bhakti just as

an iron rod placed in fire becomes like fire. Through chanting and

devotional service, one's heart is softened by the ingress of suddha

sattva (pure goodness), which consists of the samvit and hladhini

saktis, and thus one's mind and intelligence begin to function

spiritually. At this stage they no longer get in the way of the soul's

communion with Krsna. Such a mind and intelligence are eternal in their

own way, as a spiritualized mind and intelligence. Therefore, we place

the bodies of great souls in samadhi and worship their forms, their

thoughts, and their insights.

 

At the same time, one's nitya svarupa (eternal identity) in Krsna lila

is wholly spiritual, rather than spiritualized. It has a mind and

intelligence of its own. However, while we may distinguish between a

spiritualized mind and a spiritual mind, the practical reality is that

they are both spiritual. Indeed, Dhruva Maharaja went to Vaikuntha in

his spiritualized sadhaka-deha. Similarly, one may appear in Gaura-lila

in a fully spiritualized, eternally youthful sadhaka-deha. This is a

great mystery.

 

Q. Is thinking of Krsna the same as chanting his name?

 

A. The nature of the mind is such that it is not very conducive to

spiritual culture unless it is harnessed by bhakti (bhava-bhakti). In

discussing dhyana (meditation), Bhagavad-gita 6.5 says as much, atmaiva

hy atmano bandhur atmaiva ripur atmanah. Before the mind is harnessed

by bhakti, one's ability to meditate on Sri Krsna's form, qualities,

and lilas is limited, as deep meditation begins at the stage of asakti.

It is one thing to think of Krsna with the mind and another to meditate

on him. Actual meditation brings the soul in direct contact with Krsna,

whereas thinking of Krsna with one's mind does not. This is especially

true in Kali-yuga. While Krsna's form, qualities, and lilas are

nondifferent from him, they are not more merciful than he is. However,

Krsna's holy name, while nondifferent from him, is nonetheless more

merciful than he is.

 

Thus we see the glory of nama-sankirtana, the mercy of Harinama! Simply

chanting Krsna nama with the tip of one's tongue brings about actual

meditation. Therefore, our meditation should begin with chanting--nama

smaranam. This in turn is followed by meditation on the form and

qualities of Krsna (rupa smaranam, guna smaranam) and ultimately

meditation on Krsna's pastimes (lila smaranam), all of which are

present in Harinama. Meditation is the fruit of kirtana in Kali-yuga

and thus represents an advanced stage of bhakti.

 

Questions or comments may be submitted at the Q&A Forum

http://www.swami.org/sanga/ or email sangaeditor (AT) swami (DOT) org.

 

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Thursday, October, 13, 2005, Vol. VII, No. 13

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